Dave Mustaine Dishes on Playing with Rob Zombie + 20th Anniversary of ‘Countdown to Extinction’

As Megadeth geared up for their appearance at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tenn. this weekend (May 5), Dave Mustaine grabbed the microphone backstage to talk about the upcoming co-headlining tour with Rob Zombie and the 20th anniversary of the band’s classic disc ‘Countdown to Extinction.’

On touring with Rob Zombie, Mustaine talked about his history with Rob. “We’ve done shows with Rob as Rob Zombie, we’ve also played with him when his band was called White Zombie. We have formed a friendship with him over the years, it’s pretty interesting to see how he’s been so successful with movies,” said Mustaine. “There are some people that don’t even know he’s a musician because he’s been so successful with his movies.”

Mustaine seems to be a big fan of Rob Zombie, explaining, “I’m really looking forward to seeing the production, I know he’s got such an incredible show. I think it’s going to be cool too because Megadeth is a little bit about that 'Fangoria' kind of stuff because we started around that whole comic kind of thing. The two bands are going to meld together pretty well.”

As the band descends on the 20th anniversary of ‘Countdown to Extinction,’ Mustaine was asked if anything special was on tap. "Megadeth will be going down to South America, we’re going celebrate ‘Countdown to Extinction’’s 20th anniversary and ‘Peace Sells…but Who’s Buying’'s 25th anniversary so depending on where we’re at we might end up doing more than one show,” explained Mustaine. “We’re definitely going to do 'Countdown to Extinction' in its entirety and if we get a second night we’ll probably play most of 'Peace Sells.' there’s a couple of songs on there I don’t really like playing anymore but other than that it’s a fun record to play.”

The Rob Zombie and Megadeth co-headlining tour kicks off May 11 in Holmdel, N.J., check out all the dates here.